California protesters block transport of undocumented immigrants

Demonstrators picketing against the arrival of undocumented migrants who were scheduled to be processed at the Murrieta Border Patrol Station block the buses carrying the migrants in Murrieta, California July 1, 2014.(Reuters / Sam Hodgson ) / Reuters

Anti-immigration protesters impeded the arrival of several buses transporting undocumented immigrants into a US Border Patrol station in Murrieta, California on Tuesday, some 60 miles north of San Diego.

The arrival of the group of Central American families had been
decried by Murrieta’s mayor, Alan Long, who alleged that the
group of immigrants, adults with their children numbering about
140 people, represented a public safety threat to the community.

Assembled protesters, who numbered 150, converged on a street
leading up to an access road into the processing center,
preventing the two buses from reaching the facility, reported
Reuters.

Police at the scene did not attempt to break up the
demonstration, which included picket signs with messages such as
“Return to sender” and “Bus illegal children to the
White House,” and anti-immigration slogans. Almost a half
hour into the incident, the two unmarked buses turned around and
left.

A representative of the border patrol agents union said that the
immigrants would likely be rerouted to one of the other six
Border Patrol stations in the San Diego region. Local news
reports seemed to confirm that the 140 undocumented
immigrants were instead being driven to the Chula Vista Border
Patrol facility in San Diego County.

The Central American immigrants had been flown to San Diego from
Texas, and were on their way for processing at the Murrieta
facility where US immigration officials told Reuters they would
be released under supervision and await deportation.

Tuesday’s incident in Murrieta highlights the influx of both
families and unattended minors from Central America, which have
strained the border patrol’s resources and led to the creation of
several temporary processing facilities to deal with overflow
conditions in Texas.

Unlike undocumented immigrants from Mexico, who are subject to
immediate deportation, the latest influx of families and children
feeling violence and poverty in Guatemala, El Salvador and
Honduras are instead subject to processing by authorities.

Unaccompanied minors are the responsibility of the US Department
of Health and Human Services, which is currently scrambling to
create enough housing and provide basic care. Some 500,000
unattended children have crossed into the US illegally within the
past year alone. The agency’s program, Unaccompanied Alien
Children (UAC), was only meant to serve the needs of some 8,000
children per year while being processed through US immigration
court.

Temporary facilities have been set up in
Nogales, Arizona to cope with overflow from South Texas.
Meanwhile, another group of immigrants had been driven to a
similar facility in El Centro, California, some 100 miles east of
San Diego.